Google VC eyes biotech in data analytics push

Google Ventures, the venture firm backed by Google ($GOOG), is boosting its internal expertise in data analytics, and it views the life sciences industry as needing Big Data technology to solve some of its sticky research problems. In a sign the web giant's VC group wants to deepen its presence in the growing Big Data field, the firm has recently brought on Hazem Adam Ghobarah, who previously worked on quantitative research and modeling at Google, The New York Times reported. And Ghobarah has his eyes on opportunities in biology. "We keep coming back to life sciences" as an investment field, Ghobarah said, as quoted by the NYT. "In a given year, you have 200 million pathology slides. If that gets online, it is a Big Data problem." Item